Morita Yu's Half-Apology

Morita Yu appeared again by the sink outside the ninja academy's side courtyard.

That day, Mine took the children to collect supplementary assessment instructions. The academy teachers were handing out pre-enrollment practice sheets to the preparatory class students. The contents were not complicated: daily literacy, basic physical conditioning, chakra stability records, and classroom etiquette. When Kiyo saw the words "daily literacy," it was like fate had personally handed him a tough piece of hard bread to chew.

"Why does it happen every day?" Kiyo asked.

Che said, "Because characters have to go to work too."

"Then can they take leave?"

"You can ask their jonin."

Kiyo thought about it seriously and decided not to pick a conflict with the characters' jonin for the time being.

The ninja academy's side courtyard was quieter than it had been on assessment day. Classes had not officially begun yet, and only a few children who had arrived early to help move wooden stools were on the field. A stack of washed shallow bowls sat beside the sink, sunlight falling on their rims with a glare that was almost piercing.

Morita Yu was there.

He wore a short gray shirt with his sleeves rolled up, turning a bowl upside down on the rack. Hearing footsteps, he turned and saw Che, and his movements paused.

Che paused too.

Kiyo whispered beside him, "That short braid."

"He has a name," Che said.

Kiyo blinked. "Oh, Morita Yu."

Hearing his own name, Morita Yu's brow twitched. "You remembered?"

Che walked over. "A name is more useful than 'short braid.'"

Kiyo muttered, "Short braid is pretty clear too."

Morita Yu glanced at Kiyo, then back at Che. He seemed about to say something, but first straightened the bowl in his hands. A drop of water slid down its bottom and fell onto the wooden rack with a soft sound.

"What I asked that day... wasn't very nice," Morita Yu said.

He had only said half of it.

There was no complete "sorry," nor much explanation. A child's apology was sometimes like that, like taking a stone from his pocket but still not wanting to throw it very far.

Che looked at him without responding immediately.

His mind started analyzing again. Had Yamashiro Takuma reminded him? Had his parents sent him? Was the academy observing whether Uchiha children and civilian children could get along? The thoughts surfaced too quickly, like the short wooden sticks from training that remained in his head even after they had been taken away.

Che forcibly pressed them down.

First, confirm what was under his feet.

The person in front of him was a child with wet sleeves, unevenly arranged bowls, and an awkward expression. He was not a report.

"I was a little harsh in my reply that day too," Che said.

Morita Yu seemed not to have expected that. His eyes lifted slightly.

Kiyo quietly reminded him from the side, "A little?"

Che looked at him. "Thank you, eyewitness."

Morita Yu's lips moved as if he wanted to laugh but held it back. "My dad said Uchiha children start training early. I thought you were all... um, really impressive."

Kiyo immediately puffed out his chest.

Che said, "Some of us run into wooden posts."

Kiyo turned his head. "Who are you talking about?"

Che calmly replied, "Training records are confidential."

This time, Morita Yu laughed aloud. It was not loud, but it sounded more natural than it had beneath Hokage Rock.

Mine stood some distance away and did not come over. Yamashiro Takuma was also talking with another teacher at the side courtyard entrance, as though he had not noticed them. Che knew they had probably both seen, but neither interrupted.

Morita Yu put away the last bowl and pointed toward the track in the corner of the field. "How long do you train physically?"

Kiyo answered first. "A long time. The wind slaps you in the face too."

"How does the wind slap you in the face?"

"The wind from the northeast is especially unreasonable," Kiyo said. "It comes from places you think it won't."

Morita Yu listened seriously, as if he had just learned that wind could have regional personalities.

Che added, "That's why we practice our stance so much. Not to look good, but so we don't get blown crooked."

Morita Yu looked down at his feet. "My dad tells me to practice running. He says to get moving first and worry about the rest later."

"You have to stop when you run too," Che said.

The moment the words left his mouth, even he felt as if Mine had possessed him. But Morita Yu did not laugh. Instead, he nodded. "I ran too fast on assessment day. I almost crashed into the rope at the end."

Kiyo immediately found a kindred spirit. "You almost crashed too?"

Morita Yu corrected him, "I didn't crash."

"Almost is how things begin," Kiyo said.

The three of them stood beside the sink and held a thoroughly un-ninja-like discussion about "almost crashing" and "actually crashing." Saori stood nearby hugging her doll. After listening for a while, she suddenly said, "People who almost crash will watch the road. People who have crashed will remember it."

Morita Yu looked at her. "You are?"

"Saori," she said.

"Why is your bell wrapped up?"

Saori pressed her fingers against the doll's clothing. "I'm afraid it'll be too loud."

Morita Yu nodded and did not ask further.

Che noticed that. Morita Yu had awkward sides, but he also knew when not to pry. A person was not a label—Che had written that many times, yet reality always had to teach him again through specific moments.

After collecting the practice sheets, Mine took them away.

Morita Yu waved by the sink, his motion a little stiff. Kiyo waved much more wildly, as if declaring that Uchiha diplomacy had entered a new stage.

On the way back, Mine asked Che, "You didn't turn it into a test this time?"

"Almost," Che said.

"What did you do when it was almost?"

"I checked whether he was a report first."

Mine raised an eyebrow.

Che added, "He wasn't."

Mine nodded. "Remember that."

That night, Che wrote the second entry on Morita Yu in his records:

"Can offer half an apology. Listens to stories about wind slapping faces. Does not ask about Saori's bell."

After writing it, he paused, then crossed out the words "Konoha child" in the margin of the previous page.

He was not removing his vigilance.

He was taking that vigilance out of a crude label and putting it somewhere more precise.

It was troublesome.

And trouble came quickly.

The next day in preparatory class, Mine had them recite the academy practice sheet. Kiyo read daily literacy as if announcing enemy troop movements, while Saori read classroom etiquette very softly. When Che reached "students in the same group should assist one another," Kiyo immediately whispered, "Does that mean Morita Yu has to help me recognize characters later?"

Che said, "You can help him recognize the wind from the northeast first."

"I'm good at that."

Mine heard them and tapped the wooden board. "Helping one another in a group does not mean pushing your work onto each other. You need to learn to see others as possible companions, not as sources of trouble."

Che lowered his head.

Those words landed on him again. He had crossed out "Konoha child," but the old categories in his mind would not disappear because of a single ink line. Morita Yu was a specific person, but he would also bring new relationships, new misunderstandings, and new situations that needed judgment. Seeing people clearly did not mean the world suddenly became simple.

That afternoon, Che went to the water point to fetch water and ran into Sosuke.

Seeing how steadily the water in Che's wooden bucket rippled, the old man suddenly asked, "Met anyone over at the academy?"

Che paused. "I guess I got to know one person."

"From Konoha?"

"Yeah."

Sosuke snorted, but did not say, "Stay away from him." He only set his own bucket on the stone platform. "You can get to know him. Don't be in a hurry to trust, and don't be in a hurry to guard against him either. Trust too quickly and you'll get used. Guard too quickly and you'll block your own path."

Che looked at him.

Sosuke's words were a little harsher than Mine's, and more like the sort of experience left behind by the Military Police Force. Che lifted his bucket. The surface of the water swayed in a circle, then steadied again.

"What should I do, then?" Che asked.

"See what he chooses next time," Sosuke said. "You can't judge a person by one sentence, or even by half an apology."

Che nodded.

That night, he added to Morita Yu's entry:

"To be observed: his next choice."

This was not a return to crude labels.

It was an acknowledgment that specific people needed time too.

But judging people was never supposed to be easy.

Before bed, Kiyo was still thinking about Morita Yu.

"That friend of his talks unpleasantly," Kiyo said.

Che closed his wooden notebook. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you answer him?"

"Because Morita Yu was caught in the middle."

Kiyo frowned, clearly not fully understanding.

Che put it another way. "If you were talking to me, and someone beside us insulted you, then I insulted them back, would you feel good?"

Kiyo thought about it. "At first, yeah."

"And afterward?"

"Afterward, we might start fighting."

"And after that?"

Kiyo fell silent for a moment. "Aunt Nao would get angry."

Che nodded. "So it isn't that some words can't be answered. You have to see who gets caught in the middle after you answer them."

Saori sat beside the bedding with her doll in her arms and softly said, "Morita Yu clenched the cloth in his hand."

Che looked at her.

"When he said his friend wasn't a bad person, he was also afraid you would think he was bad," Saori said.

That made Che quiet. Saori could always hear the parts of other people's words that had not made a sound. Morita Yu's "he isn't a bad person" was not washing his friend clean, nor was it defending those words. It was more like a child trying hard to pull someone familiar to him back from the edge of conflict.

Che added another line to his records:

"Morita Yu leaves room for the people around him."

After writing it, he paused again.

This was not trust, only a more accurate observation. But compared to the four words "Konoha child," it already resembled the outline of a living person.